


The Quiet Kids

by why_is_glieric



Category: Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart+
Genre: AMAZING!!!, Amelia is bisexual, Amelia likes giving love advice, Canon Compliant, Cerim is doing his best, Crushes, Everyone is bisexual tbh, Getting Together, M/M, MC is older and therefore not stupid anymore, Yukiya is smooth, and slightly gayer, background Elias/MC, because goddamn this scene is so gay, but it's what we deserve, it's great, not that it needs my help for that, okay I guess Amelia is canon bi so????, recreation of canon events but with more detail, sometimes I forget Cerim isn't just a gay mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-07-29 08:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20079082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/why_is_glieric/pseuds/why_is_glieric
Summary: Elias' Sequel - Chapter 1 - Episode 10There is no heterosexual explanation for this scene. You can't change my mind.





	1. Cerim Gets Called Out

**Author's Note:**

> So??? SWD seems to be experimenting with adding The Gay(TM) to their games (LET US DATE AMELIA, COWARDS) via Bridget's route in Blood In Roses and a p p a r e n t l y Elias' sequel route in Wizardess Heart????? I have no idea why they're doing this but I want MORE.
> 
> Full disclosure, I played each route in WH as they came out until I quit playing otome games while I was in the middle of Glenn's route (long story), so I hadn't played Elias' sequel before. I recently restarted all the routes in a few of these games, including WH, because I Hate Myself, and I'm going Straight Through Chronologically. But upon starting Elias' sequel, I CERTAINLY did not expect to see Cerim highkey crushing on Yukiya!!!!!!!!! I fricken ADORE that though, so of course I immediately tried to find some fic about these lads, but there's like... next to nothing about them. This is so sad Alexa give us more gay content. An A+ memey comic shows up when you google Yukiya x Cerim tho. Shoutout to the person on tumblr who made that. It gives me life.
> 
> Also, I have pretty much no memory of Cerim's route, so I have literally no grasp on his personality beyond the dialogue from this chapter, but we're going with it anyway!!! Mayhaps I shall revisit this when I get around to Cerim's route during my replay of WH, but hopefully this holds up, regardless.

“Break up into pairs and work on your Link Magic.”

As Professor Schuyler walked behind his desk to give Liz and Elias space to review and give their example, Cerim turned sideways in his desk to look at Yukiya. They came to a silent agreement that they would be partners for this exercise, and both turned their attention back up front to let the prefects review the spell.

Liz and Elias’ demonstration of Link Magic went flawlessly, as usual—Cerim remembered a time where Liz would have accidentally turned the classroom into a disaster zone—and Schuyler told the pair to give the rest of the students some tips.

_Trust_, Elias said, is an integral part of performing Link Magic. “Entrusting yourself one hundred percent to your partner is key to a successful link.” _I trust Yukiya_, Cerim thought immediately. A moment later, he realized what had just run through his head so automatically, and he resisted letting his face reflect the mild shock buzzing through his body.

Not even a second later, Luca piped up from the very back of the room, “In other words, we need to be head over heels in love with our partner like you and Liz are.” Cerim’s internal shock from a moment ago gathered in his chest, momentarily stuttering his heart. Why would Luca say something like that? He doesn’t like Yukiya that way.

Cerim bit the inside of his cheek, internally glaring at himself. _Nobody said anything about me liking Yukiya. Don’t get defensive when nothing even happened._

Although…

“You’re exactly right, Luca.”

Cerim had to actively keep his jaw from dropping. _Don’t encourage him, Elias!_

But, as Elias could not hear Cerim’s internal screaming, he continued. “The deeper your feelings are for your partner, the higher chance your link will be successful. That’s how Link Magic works.”

Cerim’s shoulders grew tense, fighting off the pounding of his heart through sheer willpower. _If I’m the only one having a reaction to this conversation, people will get suspicious…_

“If you have time to tease people, you should spend it looking for someone serious,” Elias finished, staring Luca down with an edge of coldness. Cerim took a slow, deep breath, easing the tension from his body. _See, it was nothing. Just Elias using the opportunity to roast Luca. Nothing out of the ordinary._

As Luca backed down from the argument, the professor stepped back in. “That’s enough small talk,” he said. “We’re in the middle of class, so pay attention.”

Despite Schuyler clearly addressing Luca with that statement, Cerim got the weird feeling that he was throwing shade towards Cerim. It was probably just his imagination, though. He was paying full attention the entire time, anyhow. No need to call him out.

“Alright, everyone. From now on, I’d like you to practice your Link Magic with a partner.”

Schuyler sent everybody off to pair up for the practical part of the class, and the room burst into a flurry of murmurs as people negotiated who would be pairing up with whom. Despite people generally getting better about Yukiya’s presence and not going out of their way to avoid him anymore, nobody made a move to cross the second-to-furthest column from the door and ask either boy to pair up. Maybe it was because they knew Yukiya would pair up with someone from his small group of friends in the class—Elias, Liz, Cerim, or Luca when he bothered to show up—or maybe they still had some residual doubts about his mysterious eyepatch and quiet, antisocial tendencies. Regardless, Yukiya had never been bothered by it, and he didn’t seem to plan on starting now.

Yukiya stood from his chair, moving past Liz’s desk to stand next to Cerim and giving him a questioning look when all Cerim did was stare dumbly back up at him. When Yukiya cocked his head, opening his mouth to say something, Cerim snapped out of his thoughts, hurriedly pushing out of his chair to ready himself for the spell.

At this point, the rest of the class had settled into pairs. The room filled with attempted spells, the sound of the same phrase recited over and over by different people ringing through the air, yet none of them being followed by a wave of magic like they were supposed to. Cerim stood across from Yukiya awkwardly, both of them being the quiet type, yet Yukiya being far less affected by it than the other boy. On a normal day, Cerim would have taken the initiative to start practicing the spell together, but today he was frankly too flustered by the new thoughts running through his head to even think about how to proceed with this interaction.

When it became clear that Cerim wasn’t going to initiate the spell, Yukiya reached out, offering his hands to Cerim. He blinked, shaking off his persistently derailing train of thought to focus on taking Yukiya’s hands in his own. They were warm. He already knew this. They’d partnered up for plenty of practice sessions in past classes. There was absolutely nothing different about this one.

“D’you want to start?” Cerim jumped slightly at Yukiya’s question, involuntarily tightening his grip on Yukiya’s fingers. Yukiya’s brow furrowed at this reaction, but he didn’t question it. “With the chant?” He prompted.

Cerim nodded, actively not looking directly at Yukiya’s piercing grey eye as he held Yukiya’s hands with as much confidence as he could muster. He cleared his throat, closing his eyes and focusing on reciting the words he needed to say. “O sever the chains, shatter the shackles, and bring our s-souls together… Ligare.”

He cringed internally as he faltered on the last part of the spell, having suddenly realized the actual meaning of these words. _Bring our souls together? That’s so… intimate._ He felt inexplicably angry with the school for teaching them a spell that had such embarrassing wording._ Why are we learning something like _this_ in a school setting, anyway?!_ He hoped with everything in him that Yukiya couldn’t feel from his hands how hard his heart was pounding in that moment.

“Are you okay?” Cerim flinched at the question. Yukiya frowned slightly. “You seem tense today,” he elaborated.

Cerim tried to laugh it off, but his forced chuckle fell short. “I dunno,” he replied, sounding like a weak deflection, even to him.

The corners of Yukiya’s mouth pulled down enough to resemble a real frown. _Can he really sense that something’s off?_ Cerim thought, desperate to divert Yukiya’s attention from his failing heart. And then, an unexpected thought. _I hate that I’m the reason he looks upset._

“Are you nervous?” Cerim looked down, biting his lip. _Does he know? Can he tell that I’m being weird around him? _“This is a harder spell than usual. It’s okay that you messed up. ‘S what we’re here for.”

Cerim’s eyes widened, looking up to meet Yukiya’s gaze. He was looking at Cerim with sympathy, trying to reassure him. _He thought it was because of the spell itself. Thank the gods_, Cerim thought, unconsciously loosening up. Yukiya took that as a sign that his words got through to him—maybe they did—and he smiled faintly, nodding once and letting his eye slide shut. Waiting for Cerim to try again.

_He trusts me._

A wave of resolve flooded through Cerim. He adjusted his grip on Yukiya, determined to get it right this time, for both of them. Shutting his eyes, he recited the spell, feeling Yukiya’s hands, secure in his own. Warm.

“O sever the chains, shatter the shackles, and bring our souls together. Ligare!”

He knew it worked the second the final word left his mouth. The two of them were wrapped in a feeling of protective warmth, and a surge of magic emitted from their joint hands, blowing through the classroom and inadvertently interrupting everyone else’s attempts at executing the same spell.

Cerim’s heart was pounding even louder than before, although this time he could attribute it to adrenaline. He couldn’t help the beaming smile that he flashed at Yukiya, whose mouth curved in a small, brief smile of his own in response to Cerim’s proud one.

“Good job. We did it,” Yukiya said, expression quickly morphing back to his usual poker face. But despite not sounding more than the slightest bit happier than his usual monotone, Yukiya squeezed Cerim’s hands in a silent gesture of solidarity. Cerim squeezed back.

“Who was successful?” Liz’s excited voice sounded from the front of the classroom. Elias, whose eyes had been on them from the moment their spell had been cast, pointed out the pair to his girlfriend. She squealed, just as enthusiastic as she was when she started. In the back of Cerim’s mind, he recalled how, when Liz had first enrolled at the academy, her magic was even less controllable than her personality—but look at her now, the prefect with the princely boyfriend-slash-Buddy-slash-tutor-slash-fellow prefect. She had grown so much in only a couple of years. But that was simply a passing thought, for at the front of his mind, Cerim was still reeling at the pleasant tingling sensation coming from his and Yukiya’s linked hands. He couldn’t tell if it was from the aftereffects of the magic, or if it was because Yukiya had yet to pull away.

Now the whole class was looking at the two of them. It occurred to Cerim that he should probably say something.

“I didn’t expect to get it right in one shot…” he mumbled, realizing less than a second later that, technically speaking, it was actually their second try. _Oh well. As long as Yukiya doesn’t call me out for it._

Yukiya did him one better, staring directly at Cerim with an unidentifiable look in his eye. “I guess we’re compatible.”

Cerim’s eyes widened. He didn’t really expect Yukiya to bother saying anything in the first place, much less say something like _that_. He knew that Yukiya was referring to what Elias and Luca were talking about earlier, with Link Magic working better when the casters in question have a bond, but the implications were setting his face on metaphorical fire.

“R-right, I guess so…” Cerim stammered, cursing his traitorous mouth. He turned his head to the side in a futile attempt to hide his blush, and Yukiya mercifully released his grasp. However, it became apparent that Liz noticed, even from the front of the room. Cerim could practically see her eyes flashing red, suppressing a mischievous grin with about as much success as Cerim trying to force the heat out of his face.

Unfortunately, Luca also took notice.

“Huh? Why are you two getting embarrassed?” If he was trying to tease them, Luca would have seemed a lot more smug about the situation. But for some reason, he just seemed confused. And for that, Cerim thanked the gods.

“W-we’re not,” Cerim said defensively, swearing to every deity known to Man that his stuttering had _better_ get under control _this instant_, or he’d—

“Somehow I am,” Yukiya said with his normal lack of inflection. His face, nonplussed as ever, didn’t give away any of the embarrassment that he claimed to feel. _Must be nice_, Cerim thought snarkily.

But he had to shut this down before he could be exposed. _Exposed for what?_ “Don’t listen to what he says, Yukiya.” _Yes, no stutter this time._ But his blush hadn’t gone down at all, and he didn’t know what to do about that.

But Luca wasn’t about to let it slide. “As Prince Elias said, the deeper the feelings for each other, the stronger the magic.” His face slipped into a smug grin, starting to catch on.

Cerim glared at Luca, trying to send silent message that went something like, _If you say anything more, I’ll kill you and then myself, I really cannot afford to be exposed like this right now._ Not that there was anything to be exposed for, nope.

Luca gave Cerim a pitying smile, but added, “That magic wave was just okay,” to lessen the damage.

Feeling the need to cut this conversation off as quickly as physically possible, Cerim forced out another sentence, hopefully not sounding too pleading. “Cut it out, Luca…”

But something in his voice must have been desperate, because Ronny took that moment to pop out of Cerim’s bag and scamper up his shirt, settling on his shoulder. Cerim could feel his familiar trembling with rage, and he simultaneously dreaded what would happen next and hoped this would be a good enough distraction from his own inner turmoil.

“Hey! Stop bullying my master!” Ronny yelled, glaring at Luca with more fury than one would expect from a creature so small. And with that—perhaps feeling Cerim’s need for a distraction—he threw his acorn with all his might, landing a hit in the middle of Luca’s chest.

“Hey, that kind of hurts!” Luca pouted, clearly not actually in pain. This only fueled Ronny’s anger, stemming from his protectiveness of Cerim.

“Take this! And that!” He pelted Luca with a seemingly endless supply of acorns (even Cerim wasn’t sure where they came from) until Luca became irritated enough—or maybe in real pain enough; Cerim couldn’t tell—to beg Cerim to get him to stop.

As much as Cerim appreciated Ronny’s presence as a diversion from his embarrassment, he didn’t want him to actually end up injuring Luca. But on the other hand… he was sure Luca could deal with being hit with a few acorns for a bit longer, no harm, no foul. It’s what he gets for teasing Cerim.

“Sorry, Ronny won’t listen to me when he’s mad.” It was a lame excuse, and Luca definitely knew he was bluffing, but Luca played along anyway. Whether for his own sake or for Cerim’s, it wasn’t clear.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” he groaned, trying and failing to bat away the unrelenting onslaught of acorns flying in his direction. To Cerim’s relief, the rest of the class was laughing at their antics, and Cerim was no longer in the spotlight.

Cerim took a deep breath, finally able to lower his defenses. Fortunately for him, the whole debacle had served to distract him from his feelings as well, however briefly. At least his heart had stopped pounding. He glanced around, hoping nobody noticed, but he caught sight of Liz staring at him. Chewing her lip contemplatively, she glanced between him and Yukiya, who had taken the liberty of sitting back down at his desk while the attention was off of him. When she noticed Cerim looking back at her, she grinned at him and winked, turning back to focus on her boyfriend for the time being.

A pang shot through his heart as Cerim watched the happy couple laughing and holding hands, not a care in the world. He didn’t fully understand what just happened in the last ten minutes, but he was slowly coming to terms with the fact that—yeah, he probably did like Yukiya as more than a friend. Oh gods.

Well, he might as well ignore it for as long as he can. He refused to look back at Yukiya, instead opting to sit at his own desk two seats in front of him, only partly paying attention as Ronny scurried around the classroom floor, picking up old acorns for ammo as Luca did the same, everyone else still laughing despite being caught in the crossfire. Cerim couldn’t help the smile that spread on his face, a combination of exasperation and appreciation for both Luca and Ronny helping take the attention off of him, whether it was entirely intentional or not.

Professor Schuyler seemed about at his wit’s end, his face saying, “I’m _seriously_ not paid enough for this,” but he didn’t bother breaking up the fight. Cerim understood why a minute later, as the bell rang to signal the end of class.

“Leiado! Clean this mess up!” Schuyler barked, storming out of the room before Cerim could respond. He nodded to himself, not fighting the order—Ronny is his familiar, after all. And he really didn’t want to deal with more of Luca’s teasing, so he didn’t say anything as the rest of the students filed out for their break between classes.

As Cerim put his bag on the desk beside him, readying his wand to begin cleanup, he realized that Yukiya was still in the room. He almost expected the other boy to be asleep at his desk, if he hadn’t left yet, but Yukiya was wide awake. Just sitting there, looking up at Cerim, who was fighting off another blush. _You couldn’t have just let me off the hook, after all this, could you?_ Cerim lamented.

“D’you need help?” Yukiya asked. Cerim blinked. _He wanted to help me?_

“No, I should be fine. This’ll be quick,” he responded, a bit puzzled.

Yukiya nodded. “Okay.” He rose from his desk, picking up his bag. “See you, then.”

Cerim watched as Yukiya strolled out of the classroom, wolf familiar in tow, completely nonplussed. He scratched the back of his neck, giving himself a moment for his heart to settle, before cleaning up the mess Ronny had left in his war against Luca.

A few minutes later, upon exiting the classroom, Cerim was ambushed by an overeager Liz.

“Cerim… you like Yukiya, don’t you?!” she asked, bouncing around with stars in her eyes. Cerim’s blush returned, and he groaned in frustration. He glanced to either side, making sure nobody was close enough to hear, before giving his answer as honestly as he could.

“At least you’re straightforward. I just figured it out, myself,” he muttered, covering his mouth with his hand out of embarrassment.

She pumped her fist triumphantly. “I knew it! Are you gonna ask him out?” She leaned towards him, looking far too hopeful about something that wasn’t any of her business.

But… that was a good question, actually.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “He probably doesn’t like me back. I don’t really want to risk it.”

“_What?!_” Liz shouted, to which Cerim tried to shush her. The people around them seemed not to pay them any mind, for now—other than Elias, who had been leaning against the wall twenty feet away, staring at them since Cerim had exited the classroom. But Cerim wasn’t exactly worried about him. “You can’t just go through life without risk! And I’m sure he’d say yes, you two cast a _great_ Link spell together, I don’t care what Luca said!” She glared at Cerim, puffing her cheeks. “If you don’t confess, I won’t forgive you!”

Cerim put his hands up in a placating motion. “Really, I’m more than fine being his friend. I don’t want to freak him out.” But saying that made his heart hurt, for some reason.

… No, he knew the reason.

Liz seemed to sense his discontent with his own words, and she sighed, placing a soothing hand on his arm. “I’m still not super good with this kind of stuff, so I’ll tell you what. You should talk to Amelia. She gives _great_ love advice. I mean, she even helped me get together with Elias when I first started here!” A dopey grin crossed her face at the thought of her boyfriend, but she shook her head, coming back to the present. “I’ll send her a message to meet you, one sec…”

She rummaged through her bag, pulling out a quill with special runes engraved on the base and writing something on her arm. Cerim squinted, making out the words, “Meet Cerim @ fountain 6pm 4 advice?” before Liz circled the message, causing it to disappear. A few seconds later, a response appeared in the same spot: “Yes!!!”

Cerim whistled. “That’s some pretty advanced magic. When did you guys set that up?”

Liz grinned cheekily. “Last year. We messed it up a few times, but now it works like a charm!”

His heart filling with warmth, from both gratitude and pride, he said, “You’ve grown a lot, Liz,” hoping he channeled those feelings into his words.

She blushed, patting him on the arm. “I really have. And it’s thanks to you guys, Elias especially.”  
  
“Speaking of,” Cerim said, looking behind her, “he’s been waiting for you this whole time.” Elias seemed to figure that he was being talked about, and his face flushed—somehow, it made Cerim feel better that Elias seemed to blush easier than he did—and he pushed himself off the wall, starting towards Liz. Cerim looked back at her, placing a reciprocal hand on her arm and giving it a brief squeeze of appreciation. “Thanks for your help.”

Liz grinned widely, her face practically bursting with cheer. “No problem! You can thank us later, after you go get your boyfriend,” she said, sauntering off to meet Elias halfway and presumably hang out during their short break from any responsibilities.

Cerim sighed as he wrote down the time and place that he was supposed to meet Amelia. _What did I get myself into?_

But the look on Yukiya’s face after they cast their Link spell remained on his mind, and he couldn’t bring himself to regret any of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2's coming soon, it's currently 5am and I need Sleep so that's the only reason why I haven't written it for y'all yet lol. I'm bursting with the writing spirit since this is fresh in my mind, so it'll be up as soon as I physically can write it. don't forget to like and subscribe even though I haven't proofread this yet fhdlksgjldskf I'll get to it once I write chapter 2, I swear


	2. Gay Panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so first of all, nobody told me I straight-up left a sentence hanging when I first posted chapter 1, I fixed it now but geez, nobody holds me accountable for anything lmao. I edited the first chapter in a few places, too, jUst so y'all know,,
> 
> ... Second of all, s00per sorry for the wait, I've been?? Kind of dying, health and energy-wise???? But it's fine. I had to go on hiatus on the fic I'd been updating weekly, so that's how you Know I'm out of it. But I got the rest of this chapter done!! I think it turned out way better than if I'd just yolo'd it out back when I wrote the first chapter. Hope you guys like it :)
> 
> Also... I was not aware...... that Amelia is like, actually canonically bisexual. I didn't know about her spinoff where she could date Augustus and Scarlett. My world is Rocked and I'm fuckin here for it. Since I finished Elias' sequel, I already figured she was in a poly relationship with those two, but it's!! Literally canon!!!!!!!!!!! Like thank you so much SWD, bring on the canon LGBTQ+ rep. 
> 
> OKAY LAST THING, I looked up Cerim's wiki for this chapter bc I straight-up forgot he was a knight and you can Absolutely Tell, with all the details I started including. That's where I'm at right now.
> 
> That is all.

Cerim had plenty of time to think over the events of that fateful class as the rest of the day progressed.

… _Too_ much time, he’d venture to say.

He was phasing out during every lecture, thinking about the way Yukiya looked when he said they were compatible—_Compatible! That was the word he used!_—and jumping every time someone said the word “link,” which was surprisingly, infuriatingly often in an academy focusing on magic. How was he supposed to work like this? How do people just _like_ someone and get anything done?!

By the time he was sitting on the bench waiting for Amelia, he was completely convinced that he physically couldn’t like Yukiya. There was no way he could. Because if he did, he knew he would never do anything else in his entire life. Just waiting to be given _godsdamn love advice_ was hands-down the most excruciatingly slow and painful experience he’d ever been through—and that was including the time earlier that day when he almost entirely forgot about his knightly duties and got called out by Professor Merkulova (in the kindest way possible) for attending an afternoon class when he was supposed to be excused. And then he’d proceeded to jump at every single noise louder than a rustling of leaves during his whole patrol, worrying that he’d disgrace the Leiado name and endanger the world if he let the sacred crystal get stolen or destroyed on his watch because he was too busy thinking about _a boy_.

And on that note, he could not _believe_ he was sitting in an empty courtyard, blushing while absolutely nothing was happening, just because of this adorable, incredibly attractive, smart, blue-haired grey-eyed guy—

Indeed, being left alone with his own thoughts was _not_ in the plan when he realized he maybe kind of very much liked Yukiya. What a terrible idea this was. He should leave before Amelia could get there and persuade him that it would be fine. Because this pounding of his heart at the simple _thought_ of another person was most certainly not fine at all.

But the second the idea crossed his mind, Amelia came rushing from inside the building, making her way across the cobblestone to where Cerim was just about ready to leave the academy forever and never come back, crystal be damned. Maybe he could just camp out in front of the cave so he could at least avoid dishonor in one way instead of every way imaginable. Gods.

“Sorry I’m late!” Amelia exclaimed, putting her overflowing bag down under the bench and sitting next to Cerim. “Augustus and Scarlett wouldn’t let me leave dinner by myself until I explained why I had to go.” When Cerim looked mortified, Amelia laughed, patting him on the arm. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell them what Liz told me about your situation!” She winked.

“There is no situation,” Cerim muttered. Of course, he didn’t believe that. There was a huge situation at hand. He was having an existential crisis over it.

Amelia clearly didn’t believe his weak defense, either. “Oh, come on! Liz didn’t tell me _that_ much, but you clearly need some advice, so spill. Tell me what’s up. Give me the tea.” She shifted on the smooth wood of the bench, facing Cerim with her feet up, hugging her knees in lieu of leaning towards him with as much eagerness as Liz had earlier.

Cerim had barely stopped blushing when he started right back up again thinking about everything on which he needed to debrief the girl in front of him. He sighed heavily, covering his face with his hands for a moment, eyes on the ground. “What did Liz tell you?”

Amelia hummed. “Just that you and Yukiya performed a great Link spell today. And she pulled out of you that you like him.”

Her eyes were piercing. Begging for details in the most distinguished way.

But despite having endured this much waiting in the first place, he still wanted to get out of having this conversation. The whole thing was causing him physical pain. He briefly wondered if love could cause heartburn, then promptly pretended he hadn’t thought that, since anything as committed as love was not quite on the table, yet. It couldn’t be.

“What even are your qualifications,” he mumbled, trying his best not to sound snarky in his internally-directed defensiveness.

“Ha!” she barked out, placing both feet back on the ground and puffing her chest, hands on her hips proudly. Cerim got the idea that this was a stupid question for him to have asked. “You’re speaking to the one and only resident bisexual icon of the academy. A bicon, if you will.” She lifted her chin challengingly. “I myself am in a very healthy and loving relationship with my baes Augustus and Scarlett, and I have singlehandedly gotten seventeen different relationships up and running since I first started here when I was sixteen, along with comforting many a broken heart.” She brought her arm to rest on the back of the bench, smirking. “So what have you been up to, Cerim? How’s your repressed love life going for you?”

  
Cerim didn’t even have it in him to feel scorned by that little speech—he was honestly just impressed. He brought a hand up to his face, scratching at his cheek sheepishly. “I probably deserved that.”

Having apparently decided that he’d been put through enough torment for one day (and gods, was that the truth), Amelia let out a huff of a laugh and moved back into a serious position. “So, do you have a plan?”

Cerim stared at the ground for the ten-billionth time that day. “I’d say yes, my plan is to ignore it until it goes away, but I don’t think I can deal with this for much longer.” His chest tightened, and he resisted the urge to place his hand over his heart. As fitting as it felt, he knew that getting to _that_ point would be far too dramatic for him to preserve any ounce of his remaining dignity, even in front of someone like Amelia. He hunched over, hands covering his face again. Hiding. “I don’t think that I can handle this right now. I didn’t even know I liked him ‘til today, but it’s too much.” He hated the almost imperceptible quiver in his voice.

Folding her hands together, Amelia closed her eyes, nodding sagely. “Ah, new love. So pure. So profound.” She patted his back encouragingly, and he sat back up, not even trying to pretend his face wasn’t burning. “I’ll start off by saying, it’s totally fine and normal to have these feelings. I don’t know if you’ve been struggling with your sexuality, but…” She trailed off, a question. He shook his head. “Right. Well, regardless, even if you’re not used to it, liking someone romantically is super normal, and liking someone you’re already friends with is even more normal than that, whether you realize it or not.

“So, at this point, you have two options. One,” she held up a finger, “shut up and deal with it, forever surrendering yourself to the friendzone, never to pursue this lead unless he asks you out himself.”

Before he even started opening his mouth, Amelia was glaring at him, as if she knew that he was about to protest that _No, you’re wrong, Yukiya would never_. “Hey, I said that as a hypothetical, but you don’t know that he doesn’t like you back. _Have you asked him?_” She cut him off before he could even take a breath to say that Yukiya most certainly would not like him back. His mouth clicked shut, put in his place.

She clapped her hands together. “Anyway, your second option is to ask him out yourself. Or at least bring it up in some way.” She tapped her fingers on the bench, blatantly ignoring his blushing and spluttering. “But with someone like Yukiya, I’d recommend being straightforward about it. You’d get nowhere otherwise. Too many openings for miscommunications.”

Cerim’s head spun. This was, frankly, more input than he was expecting—although it wasn’t like he’d known what to expect in the first place. For better or for worse, Amelia had seen right through him, and she’d gone above and beyond any expectations he could have possibly had, with their few prior interactions through Liz.

Or maybe he was just utterly transparent, since Amelia took that moment to pat him on the back again, saying, “You clearly haven’t had a lot of crushes, if any before him. But I’m sure it’ll work out. Might feel like you’re dying at first, but that’s just how liking someone works.” And somehow, from Amelia, that felt reassuring.

“Did you know,” she continued, letting out a giggle, “the first time I had a crush, I thought I was sick, so I went home in the middle of the school day. When everyone else got home, one of my sisters had to explain that no, I wasn’t gonna throw up, I just liked this guy I’d been talking about every day. Even she’d figured it out. I’m not very good at hiding things, I guess.” Her nostalgic expression distracted Cerim from the meaning behind that last statement.

He didn’t know if it was all the talk about emotions, or if he was just overwhelmed, or a combination of all of it, but Cerim’s throat suddenly felt tight. But he felt compelled to force out, “What happened with him?”

Amelia blinked. “Oh. Well, nothing. I was over it in a week. Sometimes it’s just like that, when you’re a kid.” Then, as if to reassure Cerim that his circumstance was far different than hers (which, of course it was—he wasn’t going to have second thoughts over an anecdote from ten years ago), she ruffled his hair, eyes darting to the other side of the fountain. “This seems like a serious thing, Cerim. I hope you go for it.”

Cerim could barely get out a “Huh?” when she stood up, smiling with all the sweetness of Joel’s spellsinging as she turned to face the other side of the courtyard, waving to—

“Hey, Yukiya!” Amelia called out, pointing at Cerim, who was blinking owlishly between them. “Over here, bud!”

Cerim was frozen. Frozen and burning. He was too exhausted to even feel betrayed, at this point.

Amelia gave him one last meaningful look as she slung her bag over her shoulder, winking and whispering, “Good luck!” while willfully turning a blind eye to the utter panic flitting across his face and crackling under his skin so strongly he could swear he’d accidentally conjured a hurricane. She pranced over to Yukiya, meeting him in the middle and saying something that Cerim couldn’t hear through the sound of the fountain and the blood rushing in his ears. As she skipped off, Cerim prayed to the gods that this would be worth it, because he was about to take that hurricane pulsing through his body and throw his inhibitions to the wind, or else he’d start crying in front of Yukiya, and he didn’t need to be humiliated that day any more than he’d already been.

Yukiya was already standing in front of him. When had that happened? Gods, it didn’t even matter. Try as he might, Cerim couldn’t pull his eyes from the ground.

He vaguely registered Yukiya sitting next to him, close enough for their legs to brush together, and he heard him say, “Liz told me to come here. Then Amelia said you had something to tell me.” Cerim’s fists clenched the edge of the bench, cursing those nosy girls. If looks could kill, Cerim would be dead and Liz and Amelia would be in charge of the funeral.

“Yeah,” he choked out. It was now or never.

But then he noticed the wolf.

Yukiya’s familiar was staring him down. He was just lying there, resting next to Yukiya’s legs, but seemingly perfectly in Cerim’s line of sight, like he’d planned for Cerim to catch his eye. The wolf’s gaze was somehow more chilling than any danger Cerim had encountered in his entire career as a wizard and a knight, and he knew in that moment that this wolf was a being far stronger than it may have seemed, seeing him on a daily basis. The wolf must have some sort of magical power that he wasn’t able to sense before, as if he was letting Cerim in on a secret. _Why is this, of all creatures, Yukiya’s familiar?_ But Cerim couldn’t afford to chase his train of thought to its completion, because Yukiya was expecting something from him, and he couldn’t concentrate with the wolf trying to intimidate him like this.

“Is he… just gonna be here?” he managed, still barely able to speak without that irksome tremor in his voice. _How am I supposed to confess if I can’t even look at him, let alone form a sentence?_ he thought condescendingly.

Yukiya cocked his head. _Just like a dog would_, Cerim realized distantly. “Do you want him to leave?”

“Um.” Cerim’s brain was short-circuiting. He wasn’t sure if being completely alone with Yukiya would be better or worse.

After a couple seconds of Cerim not making up his mind, Yukiya turned to his familiar, communicating something silently with him. The wolf proceeded to stand up, stretch his legs out, shake himself, then take his sweet time meandering off, plopping right back down on the far side of the fountain, still in the vicinity but mostly out of sight and earshot. Hopefully the possibility of the wolf’s inhuman hearing would be nullified by the fountain’s gentle, persistent droning.

Yukiya was still waiting for him to say something, and Cerim had yet to pull his eyes up further than the other boy’s chest. And it was at that moment that Cerim realized he had no idea what to say.

Before he could agonize over his loss of words for too long, Yukiya spoke up, not impatiently. “I thought Amelia was dating Scarlett and Augustus.”

Cerim blinked. “She is?” he said, not as a question. Simply wondering why Yukiya would bring it up.

“Well,” Yukiya said, “You two looked pretty comfortable together. Wasn’t sure if I got the wrong impression.”

This boy was going to kill him. “O-of course that’s the wrong impression!” he stuttered, blushing up to his ears. Of course his crush would think he likes someone else, why not? That would just be the maraschino cherry on top of the embarrassment sundae that he’d been dining on all day.

Yukiya shrugged, looking as impassive as ever. “What did you want to tell me?”

Cerim covered his cheeks with his hands. “Cut to the chase, why don’t you,” he muttered, not really meaning to say it out loud.

“Does it have to do with class today?”

He’d thought it so many times already, but this conversation was really, truly going to be the death of him, for real.

“Well… kind of…” he said, wishing he could just be out with it. The cataclysmic pressure in his chest was only building as the seconds ticked by, Yukiya looking right at him and nobody walking by to relieve his attention. If Cerim’s hands weren’t clutching at the bench so tightly, they would be shaking.

“I don’t mean to be impatient,” Yukiya said, brushing some hair out of the way of his good eye. “You just seem like you’re having trouble saying whatever it is you want to tell me.”

Cerim let out a short breath. It didn’t help much. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

“’S okay. There’s time.”

Yukiya was so infuriatingly understanding, Cerim kind of wanted to punch him in the face and then kiss him ‘til they couldn’t breathe.

“I just don’t know how to say it,” he blurted out in lieu of actually saying what he wanted to say. At least that last thing didn’t make it out of his mouth.

Yukiya looked at him, expression ever-unreadable, then suggested something that was absolutely absurd, yet at the same time made way too much sense: “You don’t have to make it sound pretty, whatever it is. Just say it.”

Cerim had to laugh, and for some reason, he felt like he _could_. He _could_ just say it. What else was he going to do, dodge the topic until Yukiya decided he was bored and left?

As he tried to stifle the laughter bubbling up in his tightened chest, he realized belatedly that his posture throughout this whole interaction probably made Yukiya think that Cerim had stomach problems. But at that point, he was borderline hysterical—he was so full of emotions that he could barely process anymore, and Yukiya, knowingly or not, just told him outright that Cerim should confess to him. So screw it, right? If every day he spent keeping his feelings about Yukiya bottled up was going to be like this, then Cerim might as well drop out of the academy now and check himself into a psych ward.

He couldn’t feel the wetness in his eyes until a tear escaped and dripped down his cheek—from his residual anxiety or the laughter he did his absolute best to suppress, he couldn’t care to tell. Vaguely surprised, he reached up to touch it, looking at the moisture on his fingers numbly. In his peripherals, he saw Yukiya’s hand reaching out in an aborted motion. He turned to look at Yukiya fully for the first time since he’d sat down, breathing shakily.

“Are you… crying?” Yukiya sounded more baffled than worried, but both sentiments were still there. Cerim had never heard him emote so much.

“No, I… Hah, dammit.” No avoiding the subject anymore. He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I like you. A lot. Uh, romantically.” And then he couldn’t look him in the face anymore, but at least he’d said that much. Cerim covered his face again, leaning his elbows on his thighs. “I just realized it today. Sorry I’ve been so weird. I just didn’t know what to do.” He hated that his voice was shaking, but at least now the pressure was off of him.

He felt a hand placed on his shoulder, and he spread his fingers, straining his eyes without moving his body to see if he could gauge Yukiya’s reaction. But he didn’t really have to.

“That… makes more sense than what I thought.” Cerim tensed, more surprised than apprehensive, but a bubble of hope was starting to bloom in his chest, and he didn’t want to look up to risk popping it.

He did anyway. And what he saw was nothing new—Yukiya looking pensive, not saying much. So Cerim, now free of his reservations, ventured to ask, “W-what do you mean?”

Yukiya had yet to retract his hand, and Cerim wasn’t sure if he even cared whether Yukiya could feel the frantic beating of his heart at this point. “Well, I thought you were uncomfortable about what I said in class. That we’re compatible.”

And that broke Cerim.

He laughed so hard that the rest of the tears in his eyes flowed down his face, hitting his shirt despite his efforts to wipe them away. He was practically delirious after the day he just had, and it didn’t even matter if he was worrying Yukiya anymore. What did he have to lose, after the ridiculous confession he just made?

Cerim was vaguely aware that Yukiya was reaching out again, not sure whether to make contact or not, and Cerim couldn’t care less that his body moved without his permission to grab Yukiya’s outstretched hand. “I-it’s the complete o-opposite,” he gasped. “Th-that’s what made me realize I l-like you. So much. _T-too_ much.” He gripped Yukiya’s hand too tightly for it to possibly be comfortable, but he wasn’t pulling away, so Cerim’s overwhelmed brain just said, _Yeah, that’s fine_, and he closed his eyes, coveting the feeling of Yukiya’s skin on his.

When he finally felt Yukiya pull his hand away, he let himself calm down, fully ready to open his eyes to see Yukiya’s retreating form and his familiar gearing up to rip his throat out. But before he could prepare himself for the despair to set in, Yukiya had pulled him in by the shoulders and was hugging him tightly.

If Cerim’s brain was a lightbulb, it would have exploded and set fire to the whole building by now.

There were too many feelings and memories gathering in a race to whip through his mind and everything was happening so quickly that he barely keep up, so when Yukiya turned his head to murmur in his ear, “If you weren’t in over your head right now, I’d have kissed you,” Cerim couldn’t do anything but gather that his hands should be hugging Yukiya back and bury his face into his shoulder.

By then, Cerim’s mind had reached a point where time was outrageously fake. They could have been embracing for twenty seconds or an hour and it would’ve felt the same to him. He didn’t know nor care if that was a good thing or not. The only important thing was for the first time since he realized his feelings for Yukiya, he could slow down and just let himself _feel_.

Yukiya actually did like him back. He definitely hadn’t seen that one coming. Cerim should probably thank Amelia and Liz tomorrow. They almost caused him a heart attack and a half, but their meddling, as irritating as it was, snatched him a boyfriend. Maybe they’d already known about Yukiya’s feelings. Maybe it was a gamble. He guessed it could’ve ended worse.

Yukiya pulled away. Cerim probably would have stayed in that position with him forever, if he was allowed.

“So,” Yukiya said calmly, the faintest tinge of red gracing his cheekbones, “wanna date?”

Cerim laughed, feeling full. “Obviously.”

Then, Yukiya smiled. And Cerim didn’t need anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it y'all, I couldn't have Yukiya say "shall we date," it was too stupid, I--
> 
> jfdklsjfd Cerim needs a break. Again, I have no idea if I characterized him very well, but it's!!!! Fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also I completely made up that story about Amelia's first crush, so. Yeah. Lol. 
> 
> Hope this was worth the wait!! Now back to your regularly scheduled radio silence until I inevitably decide to actually write more for this couple lol


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